seriously

English

Etymology

From Middle English seriously, sereously, ceryously, seryowslech (“earnestly”), equivalent to serious +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪəɹi.əsli/, (in rapid speech) /ˈsɪəɹ.əsli/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪɹi.əsli/, /ˈsiɹi.əsli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

seriously (comparative more seriously, superlative most seriously)

1. (manner) In a serious or literal manner.

   He was hoping that we would take him seriously.

   Jimmy jokingly called Bob a doofus. Bob took the insult seriously.

   • 2009 June 26, Dwight Garner, “Out of the Bedroom, Into the Clinic”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     Masters and Johnson wanted their work to be taken seriously, and wanted to stay a step ahead of the morality police, so they tended to write in almost comically dense medicalese.

   • 2015, Christopher Biggins, Biggins - My Story:

     Jeremy, meanwhile, was the fun-lover, like me, who didn't always take it too seriously.

2. Gravely; deeply; very much.

   That was a seriously unpleasant thing to say.

3. Used to attempt to introduce a serious point in a less serious conversation.

   Synonyms: no really, no kidding, real talk

   Now, seriously, why did you forget to feed the cat today?

4. Used to call back to a previous point, in disbelief or for emphasis.

   Synonyms: no really, no kidding

   You baked ten (10) cakes. Seriously, why did you do that?

5. (informal) In an extreme or major way; majorly.

   Unless you're seriously strapped (armed), you're about to be not okay too.

Derived terms

• but seriously folks
• srsly (abbreviation)
• take seriously

 

Translations

in a serious or literal manner

• Arabic: بِجِدِّيَّة (bi-jiddiyya)

  Egyptian Arabic: بجد (begad)

  Hijazi Arabic: من جد (min jidd)

  South Levantine Arabic: عن جد (ʕan jadd)

• Belarusian: сур'ё́зна (surʺjózna)
• Bulgarian: серио́зно (bg) (seriózno)
• Catalan: seriosament (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 認真地 / 认真地 (zh) (rènzhēn de), 鄭重地 / 郑重地 (zh) (zhèngzhòng de)

• Czech: vážně (cs)
• Esperanto: grave (eo), serioze
• Finnish: vakavasti (fi), tosissaan, vakavissaan (fi)
• French: sérieusement (fr), gravement (fr)
• German: ernst (de), ernsthaft (de)
• Hungarian: komolyan (hu)
• Italian: seriamente (it), gravemente (it)
• Japanese: まじに (ja) (maji ni), 真面目に (ja) (まじめに, majime ni), 真剣に (ja) (しんけんに, shinken ni)
• Latin: sēriō
• Macedonian: серио́зно (seriózno)
• Polish: poważnie (pl), na serio (pl), na poważnie, serio (pl)
• Portuguese: seriamente (pt), a sério
• Romanian: serios (ro), cu seriozitate
• Russian: серьёзно (ru) (serʹjózno)
• Slovak: vážne
• Spanish: en serio (es), seriamente (es)
• Swedish: allvarligt (sv), seriöst (sv)
• Turkish: cidden (tr)
• Ukrainian: серйо́зно (serjózno)
• Vietnamese: nghiêm túc (vi)

speech-act

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 說真的 / 说真的 (shuōzhēnde)

• French: sérieux (fr)
• Hungarian: na de komolyan
• Norwegian: serr, seriøst
• Polish: poważnie (pl), na serio (pl), na poważnie, serio (pl), autentyk (pl) (colloquial)
• Portuguese: a sério
• Romanian: serios (ro), pe bune
• Spanish: en serio (es)

Anagrams

• ureolysis